The grouping’s command had telephone conversations with the coalition members, and the personnel could make calls to families

KUBINKA /Moscow region/, August 25. /TASS/. During its operation in Syria, the Russian military tested a new secure communication, Head of the Armed Forces Communication Chief Department, Deputy Head of the General Staff Lieutenant-General Khalil Arslanov said on Friday.

"During the military operation in Syria, we tested and used for the first time a new means of organizing secure communication with use of foreign operators’ networks," he said.

The grouping’s command had telephone conversations with the coalition members, and the personnel could make calls to families, he explained.

During military operations, ground communication in Syria were affected, rendering them unusable, he continued.

"The remaining part could not satisfy the grouping’s requirements, and the field component was not available at all," he said.

The Syrian military used mostly the ground and trunk communications, which served up to 90% of all the information.

"In the military actions, many lines were damaged - according to reports from defectors, who had access to layout of the cable lines, and during the so-called tunnel war," the general said adding most tropospheric and radio-relay ways of communication were lost as the governmental forces were defeated in Palmyra, in Deir ez-Zor and Idlib.

Trunked systems are radial-zonal systems of communication, will distribute automatically channels among talkgroups.